The Environment Thread

[pigseye]

28 minutes ago, Wideleft said:

Antarctica just hit 65 degrees, its warmest temperature ever recorded

It comes days after earth’s warmest January on record.

By Matthew Cappucci

February 7 at 10:56 AM

Just days after the earth saw its warmest January on record, Antarctica has broken its warmest temperature ever recorded. A reading of 65 degrees was taken at Esperanza Base along Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula on Thursday, making it the ordinarily frigid continent’s highest measured temperature in history.

The Argentine research base is on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula. Randy Cerveny, who tracks extremes for the World Meteorological Organization, calls Thursday’s reading a “likely record,” although the mark will still have to be officially reviewed and certified.

The balmy reading beats out the previous record of 63.5 degrees, which occurred on March 24, 2015.

The Antarctic peninsula, on which Thursday’s anomaly was recorded, is one of the fastest-warming regions in the world. In just the past 50 years, temperatures have surged a staggering 5 degrees in response to earth’s swiftly-warming climate. Around 87 percent of glaciers along the peninsula’s west coast have retreated in that time, the majority doing so at an accelerated pace since 2008.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/02/07/antarctica-just-hit-65-degrees-its-warmest-temperature-ever-recorded/?itid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_antarctica-1040am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

David Bromwich, a climate researcher at Ohio State University, noted, however, that while the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed strongly since the late 1940s, temperature trends in summer have been variable in recent decades, including a brief cooling spell since 1998. “So overall, this record looks to be a one time extreme event that doesn’t tell us anything about Antarctic climate change,” he wrote in an email.

[pigseye]

13 of 13 Antarctic Peninsula and nearby island stations show cooling over the past 21 years. There hasn’t been any warming there so far this century. Data source: NASA GISS, Version 4 unadjusted. 

[Mark F]

2 hours ago, Wideleft said:

Antarctica just hit 65 degrees, its warmest temperature ever recorded

 

12 years to do something.

The so called "free market" our useless "solution" to all problems, failed in 1990, when Exxon was fully aware of this, covered it up, and propagandized the planet for profit. And still no accountability for that.

Going to be lots of cutting back, much lower living standards, migration problems that make the current ones seem small, and the like, when (if) we finally decide to something meaningful.

Homo Sapiens on trial.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by Mark F

[Wideleft]

41 minutes ago, pigseye said:

David Bromwich, a climate researcher at Ohio State University, noted, however, that while the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed strongly since the late 1940s, temperature trends in summer have been variable in recent decades, including a brief cooling spell since 1998. “So overall, this record looks to be a one time extreme event that doesn’t tell us anything about Antarctic climate change,” he wrote in an email.

Records by definition are one-time extremes.

[Wideleft]

49 minutes ago, pigseye said:

13 of 13 Antarctic Peninsula and nearby island stations show cooling over the past 21 years. There hasn’t been any warming there so far this century. Data source: NASA GISS, Version 4 unadjusted. 

Sorry.  Posting a graph generated by an anonymous twitter user claiming to use NASA data doesn't cut it.  Especially when she has NoTrickZones right in her banner.

[Mark F]

1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

Sorry. 

It's hard to grasp the stupidity of certain kinds of people.

meanwhile https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/02/03/peak-permian-oil-production-schlumberger

Quote

 

the fracking industry has lost hundreds of billions of dollars and now is saddled with debts it will never be able to pay back because the best days of U.S. shale oil production appear to be in the past.

The flow of low interest loans to shale oil and gas companies has dried up, signaling the end of the era of being “grossly overcapitalized.”

And while there is still much debate about how much oil the Permian can yet produce, there is little debate anymore about the fact that investors are no longer eager or willing to loan companies money to frack — unless the companies can prove to be profitable — which is something the majority of them have failed to do.

 

whose money is being blown in the hundreds of billions on this idiocy? No doubt wall street banks and oilco execs are doing fine as long as the scam continues.

Never made any money? Lets keep doing it!

Brilliant investment strategy.

Edited February 7, 2020 by Mark F

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

3 hours ago, pigseye said:

13 of 13 Antarctic Peninsula and nearby island stations show cooling over the past 21 years. There hasn’t been any warming there so far this century. Data source: NASA GISS, Version 4 unadjusted. 

 

2 hours ago, Wideleft said:

Sorry.  Posting a graph generated by an anonymous twitter user claiming to use NASA data doesn't cut it.  Especially when she has NoTrickZones right in her banner.

 

No kidding, it even says that the chart was produced by @kireynet. This person here made the chart:

 

 

The person who has this article pinned to the top of "her" twitter page, an article from brietbart... 

This is the solid evidence you put forth while snubbing the other hundreds of thousands of peer reviewed papers on the subject... smh.

 

edit: And at a glance... it looks like they used the number of stations instead of the temperature (yet labeled it as temperature )to get that slight decline. 

 

Edit2:

 

also:

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by wanna-b-fanboy

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Was listening to an Aussie space podcast can the guy just went on about upteen days of 40c weather and dust storms that made it impossible to breath

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/the-world-s-largest-iceberg-has-started-drifting-away-1.4800168

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by FrostyWinnipeg

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-nine-tipping-points-that-could-be-triggered-by-climate-change

Excellent read.

[pigseye]

On 2020-02-07 at 12:59 PM, Wideleft said:

Sorry.  Posting a graph generated by an anonymous twitter user claiming to use NASA data doesn't cut it.  Especially when she has NoTrickZones right in her banner.

Nobody, even NOAA and NASA, dispute the cooling, try doing a little research,

Here we use a stacked temperature record to show an absence of regional warming since the late 1990s. The annual mean temperature has decreased at a statistically significant rate, with the most rapid cooling during the Austral summer. Temperatures have decreased as a consequence of a greater frequency of cold, east-to-southeasterly winds, resulting from more cyclonic conditions in the northern Weddell Sea associated with a strengthening mid-latitude jet. These circulation changes have also increased the advection of sea ice towards the east coast of the peninsula, amplifying their effects. Our findings cover only 1% of the Antarctic continent and emphasize that decadal temperature changes in this region are not primarily associated with the drivers of global temperature change but, rather, reflect the extreme natural internal variability of the regional atmospheric circulation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature18645

 

[pigseye]

On 2020-02-07 at 2:39 PM, wanna-b-fanboy said:

 

 

No kidding, it even says that the chart was produced by @kireynet. This person here made the chart:

 

 

The person who has this article pinned to the top of "her" twitter page, an article from brietbart... 

This is the solid evidence you put forth while snubbing the other hundreds of thousands of peer reviewed papers on the subject... smh.

 

edit: And at a glance... it looks like they used the number of stations instead of the temperature (yet labeled it as temperature )to get that slight decline. 

 

Edit2:

 

also:

 

Facts are facts no matter who is telling them. That's your problem, you only listen to what you want hear. 

[Wideleft]

33 minutes ago, pigseye said:

Nobody, even NOAA and NASA, dispute the cooling, try doing a little research,

Here we use a stacked temperature record to show an absence of regional warming since the late 1990s. The annual mean temperature has decreased at a statistically significant rate, with the most rapid cooling during the Austral summer. Temperatures have decreased as a consequence of a greater frequency of cold, east-to-southeasterly winds, resulting from more cyclonic conditions in the northern Weddell Sea associated with a strengthening mid-latitude jet. These circulation changes have also increased the advection of sea ice towards the east coast of the peninsula, amplifying their effects. Our findings cover only 1% of the Antarctic continent and emphasize that decadal temperature changes in this region are not primarily associated with the drivers of global temperature change but, rather, reflect the extreme natural internal variability of the regional atmospheric circulation.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature18645

 

First of all, it looks like you are quoting a completely different article to defend the graph you posted.  Not sure if that's intentional, but it's misleading just the same.

Now lets see what one of the researchers (John Turner) actually said about the study you are quoting here:

"In the second half of the 20th century, “the place that’s warmed the most was the Antarctic Peninsula,” said John Turner, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey. “It’s a real hotspot of warming across the Earth.”

Now, however, Turner and a team of fellow scientists with the survey are out with a rather unexpected new finding in the journal Nature — one likely to be seized on by climate change skeptics, doubters and deniers. Since about 1998, the research finds, the Antarctic Peninsula has reversed this famous trend and cooled down again, and done so fairly significantly.

Yet Turner stresses this doesn’t mean climate change isn’t happening — only that natural variability in the region is quite large, and has recently kicked into gear for rather complex reasons. “This switch from a very very marked warming to a modest cooling is purely a local factor, and not saying anything like ‘global warming has stopped,’ ” Turner said.

Indeed, the Antarctic Peninsula has still warmed in the long run, said Eric Steig, an Antarctic researcher at the University of Washington, Seattle — whose comment on the study accompanies its publication in Nature on Wednesday. Two decades of reversal aren’t enough to change that. So it’s important to keep a sense of perspective.

“It hasn’t cooled nearly as much as it had warmed before,” Steig said."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/20/the-antarctic-peninsula-is-cooling-but-climate-skeptics-shouldnt-get-too-excited/

[Wideleft]

36 minutes ago, pigseye said:

Facts are facts no matter who is telling them. That's your problem, you only listen to what you want hear. 

 

 

 

 

 

[blue_gold_84]

53 minutes ago, pigseye said:

Facts are facts no matter who is telling them. That's your problem, you only listen to what you want hear. 

Feel free to let the rest of us know when you decide to start commenting here with some facts, then. Instead of your nonsensical, cherry-picked, denialist bullshit that adds nothing of value whatsoever to the discussion.

[pigseye]

1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

 

 

 

 

 

This should help you sleep better at night, the IPCC is dialing back their 'worst case scenario' as the evidence starts to pile up against them,

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00177-3

Not trying to be a **** but this is good news that everyone should agree on.

RCP8.5 was intended to explore an unlikely high-risk future². But it has been widely used by some experts, policymakers and the media as something else entirely: as a likely ‘business as usual’ outcome. A sizeable portion of the literature on climate impacts refers to RCP8.5 as business as usual, implying that it is probable in the absence of stringent climate mitigation. The media then often amplifies this message, sometimes without communicating the nuances. This results in further confusion regarding probable emissions outcomes, because many climate researchers are not familiar with the details of these scenarios in the energy-modelling literature.

This is particularly problematic when the worst-case scenario is contrasted with the most optimistic one, especially in high-profile scholarly work. This includes studies by the IPCC, such as AR5 and last year’s special report on the impact of climate change on the ocean and cryosphere⁴. The focus becomes the extremes, rather than the multitude of more likely pathways in between.

Happily — and that’s a word we climatologists rarely get to use — the world imagined in RCP8.5 is one that, in our view, becomes increasingly implausible with every passing year⁵. Emission pathways to get to RCP8.5 generally require an unprecedented fivefold increase in coal use by the end of the century, an amount larger than some estimates of recoverable coal reserves⁶. It is thought that global coal use peaked in 2013, and although increases are still possible, many energy forecasts expect it to flatline over the next few decades⁷. Furthermore, the falling cost of clean energy sources is a trend that is unlikely to reverse, even in the absence of new climate policies⁷.

Assessment of current policies suggests that the world is on course for around 3 °C of warming above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century — still a catastrophic outcome, but a long way from 5 °C^7,8. We cannot settle for 3 °C; nor should we dismiss progress.

[Wideleft]

How Warming Winters Are Affecting Everything

February 18, 202012:00 PM ET

 

"Winters are warming faster than other seasons across much of the United States. While that may sound like a welcome change for those bundled in scarves and hats, it's causing a cascade of unpredictable impacts in communities across the country."

CALIFORNIA

According to one study, cold temperatures that many orchard crops need could decrease by as much as 60% in California's Central Valley by 2100. Apples, cherries and pears, which require the longest period of cold weather, could be hit the hardest.

 

SOUTHEAST

For decades, the Southeast actually got cooler while the rest of the country warmed. But now it's warming too, and that includes winters, with the length of the freeze-free season increasing in some places by as much as a week and a half.

That's a problem for farmers, who need cold temperatures for their plants to set fruit. The winter of 2016-2017 was too warm for Georgia peaches, for instance, and about 80% of the crop failed.

NORTHEAST

Deer ticks transmit several diseases, including Lyme, which has grown from a few hundred cases in Maine more than a decade ago to a high last year of more than 2,100. Cases of another tick-borne disease, anaplasmosis, have also surged in the state to more than 680, up from just single cases in the early 2000s.

MIDWEST

Warm winters are even worse for certain fruit and nut trees, which require chill hours during the winter. If they don't get enough of those, they won't produce the following season.

Michigan's cherry trees have struggled with erratic winter weather. And the repeated freeze-thaw cycles of the 2018-2019 winter, among other weather anomalies, destroyed Iowa's chestnut crop last year.

MOUNTAIN WEST

Warmer temperatures and record-low precipitation can also make trees more susceptible to infestation. The most damaged areas are in and around Rocky Mountain National Park and parts of the San Juan Mountains, the West Elk Mountains and the Sawatch Range.

"Forty to 50 percent of the mature spruce in the state has been killed during the epidemic," says Seth Davis, an assistant professor of forestry at Colorado State University. Davis' recent study found that warmer winter temperatures meant slightly bigger spruce beetles that emerged earlier and flew around longer.

TEXAS

Researchers are seeing more mismatches as a result of climate change, says Norma Fowler, a biology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "You can get plants that bloom before the pollinators are available," she says. "You can get birds that come north before the insects are out for them to eat."

ALASKA

Poor ice formation is also making it riskier for Alaskans who rely on ice roads, built on some of the state's rural rivers during winter, to move freight and other goods. In recent years, residents have blamed warm temperatures for the deaths of a number of people whose snowmobiles or all-terrain vehicles fell through thin ice.

The state's oil industry needs hundreds of miles of ice roads over land for its operations, which are specially designed for freezing conditions. Companies are investing in technology to help them cope with steadily shrinking winters.

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/18/803125282/how-warming-winters-are-affecting-everything

[Mark F]

Wall Street investment bank JP Morgan Chase clearly not aware of the brilliant, daring research at "notrics"

 

 

Quote

 

Human life "as we know it" could be threatened by climate change, economists at JP Morgan have warned.

In a hard-hitting report to clients, the economists said that without action being taken there could be "catastrophic outcomes".

The bank said the research came from a team that was "wholly independent from the company as a whole".

 

and.....GASP!!! :

 

Quote

To mitigate climate change net carbon emissions need to be cut to zero by 2050. To do this, there needed to be a global tax on carbon, the report authors said.

Worst part!!! "Climate change could affect shares" oh no not that!

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51581098?fbclid=IwAR1WzFU0oHCASBA2jaF6xpF39vhGDrNeqVsLGt9aTZ1OGO7GCTPFPmj6pww

Edited February 22, 2020 by Mark F

[Mark H.]

On 2020-02-07 at 12:39 PM, Mark F said:

Going to be lots of cutting back, much lower living standards, migration problems that make the current ones seem small, and the like, when (if) we finally decide to something meaningful.

Homo Sapiens on trial.

 

I don’t see any willingness to do any of that.  People are not even willing to pick vegetables anymore.  Fossil fuels have enabled much of what we take for granted as a society.  Reducing their usage will require a return to more menial labour. I also think ‘cutting back’ will not be done in a way that’s equitable. 

[Fatty Liver]

Looks like Teck threw in the towel on their application to build a massive oilsands project in northern Alberta before it could be rejected.

Teck withdraws application for Frontier oilsands mine, citing debate around climate policy

Teck Resources has officially withdrawn its application to build the $20-billion Frontier oilsands mine, just days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to issue a ruling on the contentious project.

In a letter to Trudeau published late Sunday, Teck chief executive Don Lindsay said the company made the decision as protests against a separate pipeline project stretch into their second week, blocking rail lines across the country and occupying public spaces. Lindsay said the Frontier project put his company “squarely at the nexus” of much deeper-lying tensions in Canada between natural resource extraction and First Nation land claims.

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/teck-frontier-mine-alberta-oilsands

 

In unrelated news Michelle Rempel Garner has drawn a  line in the sand with "The Buffalo Declaration".  

 

https://buffalodeclaration.com/

 

In related news Jason Kenney does not endorse this declaration, but continues to issue vicious threats...wink wink....nod nod....quack quack.

https://nationalpost.com/news/manifesto-underscores-the-depth-of-frustration-in-alberta-says-premier-jason-kenney?video_autoplay=true

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Throw Long Bannatyne

[Mark F]

10 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Looks like Teck threw in the towel on their application to build a massive oilsands project in northern Alberta before it could be rejected.

My guess..... price of oil is too low to make money. Otherwise they would proceed with it.

but  when the head of Goldman Sachs is issuing warnings about oil business risks, and says that business is now done, these investments no longer make financial sense.

These financial warnings are coming from many of the largest banks and institutional heads. Just not from Petro states like Russia and Alberta.

glad that the NDP lost in alta, had they won, this would of course be their fault.

 

Edited February 24, 2020 by Mark F

[Wideleft]

14 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Looks like Teck threw in the towel on their application to build a massive oilsands project in northern Alberta before it could be rejected.

Teck withdraws application for Frontier oilsands mine, citing debate around climate policy

Teck Resources has officially withdrawn its application to build the $20-billion Frontier oilsands mine, just days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was expected to issue a ruling on the contentious project.

In a letter to Trudeau published late Sunday, Teck chief executive Don Lindsay said the company made the decision as protests against a separate pipeline project stretch into their second week, blocking rail lines across the country and occupying public spaces. Lindsay said the Frontier project put his company “squarely at the nexus” of much deeper-lying tensions in Canada between natural resource extraction and First Nation land claims.

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/teck-frontier-mine-alberta-oilsands

 

Teck had telegraphed this awhile ago.  It's definitely due to oil's market value not being high enough to justify the expense.

Edited February 24, 2020 by Wideleft

[Mark F]

Trudeau's fault!

• JPMorgan Chase announced a pledge to facilitate $200 billion in environmental and economic development deals and will pull back from advising and lending to the coal-mining industry.
• Apart from helping to fund new climate and economic inclusion projects, the bank said it’s taking steps to accelerate the transition to clean energy.
• On top of stepping back from advising companies that get most of their revenue from coal extraction, JPMorgan said it will put restrictions on financing new coal-fired power plants, phase out “credit exposure” to the industry by 2024 and will stop funding new oil and gas drilling projects in the Arctic.
• CNBC

[Wideleft]

This story fell under the radar:  Teck Resources purchased a Solar Facility in B.C. in January.

Vancouver, B.C. – Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) announced today it has purchased the SunMine solar energy facility (‘SunMine’) in Kimberley, British Columbia, from the City of Kimberley.

SunMine is located on fully reclaimed land at Teck’s former Sullivan Mine site. The 1.05 MW (megawatt) solar facility, operational since 2015, is the first grid-connected solar facility in British Columbia and the first built on a reclaimed mine site, and has potential for future expansion.

 

https://www.teck.com/news/news-releases/2020/teck-announces-purchase-of-sunmine-solar-energy-facility?fbclid=IwAR2LPqjVQeIO6kesnXDE_Q79IzeZ2EGVDK9jhzqmtjn0tZDCTlJvw7xemjI

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

This story fell under the radar:  Teck Resources purchased a Solar Facility in B.C. in January.

Vancouver, B.C. – Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TECK.A and TECK.B, NYSE: TECK) announced today it has purchased the SunMine solar energy facility (‘SunMine’) in Kimberley, British Columbia, from the City of Kimberley.

SunMine is located on fully reclaimed land at Teck’s former Sullivan Mine site. The 1.05 MW (megawatt) solar facility, operational since 2015, is the first grid-connected solar facility in British Columbia and the first built on a reclaimed mine site, and has potential for future expansion.

 

https://www.teck.com/news/news-releases/2020/teck-announces-purchase-of-sunmine-solar-energy-facility?fbclid=IwAR2LPqjVQeIO6kesnXDE_Q79IzeZ2EGVDK9jhzqmtjn0tZDCTlJvw7xemjI

So... energy companies are divesting from fossil fuels and investing in renewables?

Edited February 26, 2020 by wanna-b-fanboy

[FrostyWinnipeg]